Monday, June 1, 2009Shopflick.com Acquired By Sugar, Inc.Los Angeles-based Shopflick.com, an online video fashion marketplace, has been acquired by San Francisco publisher Sugar Inc., Sugar said Monday afternoon. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. According to Sugar, Shopflick.com will become part of its ShopStyle social shopping destination for women, with ShopFlick.com founder David Grant becoming president of a new, Los Angeles-based unit called Sugar Digital Entertainment. Sugar said that Sugar Digital Entertainment will focus (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 1, 2009(Full story)
WiSpry Pulls In $10M MoreIrvine-based WiSpry a developer of programmable RF semiconductors, disclosed late Monday that the firm has raised another $10M in its Series C funding round. According to WiSpry, the additional investment came from Chart Venture Partners and Acadia Woods Partners. WiSpry had announced $10M in an initial close to the round on April 7th. The additional funding brings the Series C round to $20M. WiSpry develops RF semiconductors, including tunable antennas and other CMOS products targeted at the wi (More info...)
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Dayak Launches Marketplace For Contract, Temp JobsCarlsbad-based Dayak, a VC-funded online site focused on recruiting, said recently that it has launched a new marketplace focused on temporary and contract labor. According to Dayak, the new marketplace comes as companies are starting to look more than temporary and contract workers, in response to the "economic meltdown." Dayak allows staffing firms to post temp and contract openings to its new marketplace, allowing independent recruiters to help fill those positions. Allan Sabol, the firm's CE (More info...)
posted on Monday, June 1, 2009(Full story)
Israeli Tech Firms Eye Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, which has one of the largest Jewish populations in the world, is known for many links to the country of Israel. However, how much of a link do Israeli technology companies see with Southern California's technology industry? Israeli high tech executives heading to the Israel Conference in Los Angeles this Thursday told us that there was a strong link, in general, between Israeli high tech firms and California in general--usually as an entree into the North American market--but do not (More info...)
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Interview with Eden Jarrin, eDivvyFor this morning's interview, we caught up with Eden Jarrin, the President of Los Angeles-based eDivvy (www.edivvy.com). Eden told us a bit about the firm, how people are using it, as well as her own experience and what she learned from her prior startup, BeJane.
Let's start with eDivvy. How did you end up here?
Eden Jarrin: The company was founded by Steven Ng, and was started about a year and a half ago. I was speaking on a conference and panel about branding and experience with my last (More info...)
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Disney Completes Kaboose BuyNorth Hollywood-based Disney Online announced today that the firm has completed its purchase of a number of web sites from Kaboose, including Kaboose.com, BabyZone.com, AmazingMoms.com, and ParentZone.com. The acquisitions, which were first announced in April, will become part of a new division the firm is calling Disney Online Mom and Family Portfolio. Disney had earlier said that the deal was worth approximately $18.4M. Disney said that the new group will be led by Emily Smith, VP of Disney O (More info...)
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Geni Widens SearchLos Angeles-based Geni, the online family tree and social networking site, has enhanced the firm's search features, telling its users that it is now allowing them to search any profile on the site, regardless of whether those profiles are connected into a user's family tree or not. According to the firm, the reason for the shift is that the distinction between familes which are and are not connected is becoming "less important," giving the example of 15 million profiles connected into the firm's (More info...)
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Vitesse Nears Settlement With SEC Over Stock OptionsCamarillo-based Vitesse Semiconducutor says that it's long running saga with the SEC over stock options practices is nearing an end, and said that the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission is recommending a proposed settlement with the firm to conclude "all matters arising from the SEC investigation." Vitesse said that under the proposed settlement, the firm will pay $3M in a civil penalty, and a consent to "permanently enjoin" the firm from violating antifraud and other provisions of (More info...)
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Epicor Ships Updated Software SuiteIrvine-based Epicor Software, disclosed this morning that it is shipping a new version of the firm's IT service management software, Epicor ITSM. According to Epicor, the software--used by companies to manage their information technology service operations--includes improvements to both performance and stability, as well as support for MIcrosoft's latest operating systems and software, including Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, and 64-bit operating system versions.
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CyberDefender Taps Into MozyLos Angeles-based CyberDefender, a provider of PC security and antivirus software, said this morning that it has entered into a partnership with Decho, the EMC subsidiary which runs the Mozy online backup service. According to CyberDefender, it will offer Mozy to current and potential CyberDefender customers. Financial terms of the partnership were not disclosed. CyberDefender said Mozy's online data backup service will round out its product line.
posted on Monday, June 1, 2009(Full story)
Applied Biosystems Ships Mass Spectrometry ToolsCarlsbad-based Applied Biosystems announced Monday that the firm has shipped a number of new, mass spectrometry tools aimed at the laboratory market. According to the firm, which is a division of Life Technologies, the new tools are targeted at food and water contaminant testing, forensic drug screening, and protein biomarker research. Among the new product offerings are a software application called Cliquid, and mTRAQ, a set of chemical reagents for labeling proteins.
posted on Monday, June 1, 2009(Full story)